Genotypic Diversity in Oenothera laciniata (Onagraceae), A Permanent Translocation Heterozygote

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Abstract
A species-wide survey was made allozyme variation in 60 populations collected throughout the range of O. laciniata, a permanent translocation heterozygote. Reproduction in this species is effectively asexual. Forty individuals from each population were assayed for 13 enzyme systems, representing 18 loci. The number of genotypes recorded per population ranged 1-16 with a mean of 6.5. Normalized Shannon diversity ranged 0.00-0.65 with a mean of 0.33. Corrected Gini diversity ranged 0.00-0.89 with a mean of 0.59. Evenness of populations ranged 0.00-1.00 with a mean of 0.65. A total of 108 genotypes were observed. Sixty-three genotypes were found only within single populations. Three genotypes were widespread, occurring in over half of the populations. The mean number of populations containing any given allozyme genotype was 5.2. Diversity trends in O. laciniata are compared with those for 2 well-studied clonal animals [Cnemidophorus tesselatus and Otiorrhynchus scaber] and for another clonal plant, O. biennis. O. laciniata is as genotypically diverse as those animals and considerablly more diverse than its congener. Sources of clonal diversity and the maintenance of clonal coexistence in these populations are considered.